Back to Secret League
Back to Secret League Skaven Teams

Clan Pestilens Starting Roster & Tactics

"Have you ever had the urge to PLAY and SMELL cheesy at the same time? Clan Pestilens has got you covered. In filth."

TEAM OVERVIEW: One of the beautiful things about this team is the extremely high MA and decent AG of all the players, whilst not having to go under 3 Str, unlike lots of other Skaven teams. It allows your Priests, usually brawling positionals, to dodge out and quickly move across the pitch to screen, mark, or even blitz. This is a very cheesy team, and you should be constantly looking for quick plays of stealing the ball, hand-off, and passing down the sidelines. With good use of Priests, Monks, and Carriers, an approaching enemy cage can quickly turn into the ball being a single turn from getting you a TD.

Additionally, your entire roster has disturbing presence, so they are especially good at disrupting passing teams, and this is something you should keep in mind when facing such lineups. You can quite easily get a -3 to anyone’s passing or catching roll without having to even mark them!

Make sure not to leave your B&C out on its own, but also don’t be afraid to utilise it! You should be trying to cause chaos with the Censer Bearer every single turn, whether that be to break up an opponent’s front-line, or to shepherd a cage up the pitch.

FOUL EVERY GAME WITH A MONK! Your linemen are reasonably expendable and it is extremely easy to set up early fouls on Big Guys using the Censer Bearer to put them on the ground and surrounding them with your high MA players. Getting an early Dirty Player on a few of the Monks is great for this so you can get through the armour of the toughest nuts.

Your Carriers are likely to get the most SPP due to the TDs and passes they’ll be doing, but your other players have enough MA and AG that giving them the odd TD won’t be too hard to figure out, especially if you can get an early cas on an enemy positional with a foul, freeing up a Priest.

PLAYERS:

• Plague Censer Bearer

These are your equivalent of a Big Guy, and the fact that they don’t have Secret Weapon is bloody crazy. You should be trying to run one at least every match, and it is incredibly worth it to save up for a second. Putting one on the line of scrimmage with a Monk buddy will make sure you can start causing chaos without letting it get surrounded too easily and being pow-ed. Be careful if you are going up against any Dauntless or Guard heavy teams, else your chaos-creating friends be blitzed down and leave you open for exploitation. On defence, a rushing B&C is hard to beat for cage-breaking, and it will force your opponents to steer clear. On offence, you can use it to disrupt defensive lines or inch your way up the field protecting your ball carrier.

Develop with Mighty Blow, Guard, or even Claws. Thick Skull is also good to keep it being KO’ed if you do accidentally leave it out high and dry. There are too many options in Strength and Mutations that don’t do anything with B&C, so don’t bother randoming, even if you have some spare SPP. Sure Feet is a great secondary choice because mo rushing means mo blocks. Even pick up Sprint if you’re feeling wild and risky (probably don’t).

• Plague Priests

A 3 Str Frenzy positional is tricky, especially if you are used to playing teams like Khorne or Norse who’s Frenzy positionals typically have 4 Str. It is very easy to Frenzy-trap yourself with these guys, but having Foul Appearance and Stand Firm keeps them a little more safe than just a random lineman. Having 7 MA on a Frenzy piece, however, is phenomenal. They will usually be brawling on the front line, but you should also keep them in mind when dodging out to blitz a cage in order to mark a ball carrier. Do NOT underestimate Stand Firm, especially if you end up picking up Dodge or Block on these guys. It is phenomenal for keeping the ground you have gained, especially when the rest of your team is so squishy.

Develop with Block, Tackle, or Guard if you want more of a brawler, or Strip Ball for a ball sacker. If you end up with a lot of early SPP, consider choosing Horns as your first advancement before Secondary skills become too expensive. Horns on a Frenzy piece is extremely good for blitzing cages, especially on such a slippery player.

• Plague Carriers

These are your main ball handlers with Sure Hands off the bat, and the PA of 4+ is the best on the team, even if it’s not super notable in comparison to other teams. They also start with Foul Appearance, which can come in clutch to save them from a blitz every now and then, or force someone to burn a reroll. Unfortunately they have pretty terrible advancement options, only having General as a primary. You will likely be picking up lots of SPP with these guys for touchdowns, but don’t get pigeon-holed into only using them to score. All of your players (except B&C) have the same AG and MA, and so all are good to use for passing to, hand-offs, or just getting the ball to the TD. These guys are great for swooping in with Sure Hands after blitzing a ball carrier.

Develop with Block as a good all-rounder, or Pro can also be pretty good for dodging or rerolling a pass to get the ball further up field. Strip Ball can also be great to pick up. Rolling random AG skills can also be very good, as all of them are useful for a Carrier. AG skills to look out for if you have the SPP to choose would be Dodge, Sure Feet, Sprint, or Defensive if you are facing lots of Guard.

• Plague Monks

These rats are a real example of jack of all trades master of none. They can take dodge and catch kind of, they have good but not phenomenal MA, baseline Str, low armour and bad passing. 9/10 games you will be playing with at least one journeyman, which you will typically use as a sacrificial marker for any big guys or to screen a cage. Use them to mark up and provide assists, pull off some cheesy ball handling with them to get it to your Carriers, but don’t get too attached. If they become well developed, then consider using an Apothecary to save a serious injury or death, but you will usually want to save that for patching your positionals up. Where they do excel is being relatively expendable, but also still having decent-ish stats. They are awesome foul pieces, and the slippery 7 MA helps them get to areas which people don’t see coming.

Develop with Block, Dirty Player, random General, and random Mutation or Agility. Consider saving some SP for a Sneaky Git choose + a Dirty Player for maximum fouling. Getting two Dirty Players early in a league is also very tasty so you can field one on each side of the pitch to descend wherever they need to go, but don’t get more than that.

Inducements

Given the lower cost of your linemen, and your propensity to have journeymen, you’ll likely have the opportunity to get some inducements in most games. Here are a list of my favourites to run, plus a small sentence of why:

• Bloodweiser Kegs. Pick up your positionals a little easier after they get knocked out, especially important for keeping your B&C going.

• Bribes or Biassed Referee. You foul lots, you want to foul more, foul all the time.

• Star Player: Akhorne. Without your B&C, or with a B&C busy, you will have a really hard time cage-breaking, especially against high-strength teams. Akhorne solves this problem beautifully, and your speedy rats can keep up beside the Squirrel to provide assists for his Dauntless Frenzies.

-Mother Goose